The Masterplan for Rehabilitation
and Revitalisation of the Ex‐PLG area in Central
Kalimantan, highlights that poverty is concentrated in specific
geographical areas due to a combination of factors. These include socioeconomic
challenges, the relative success of former hydrological management efforts.
Poverty in Central Kalimantan province is
amongst the highest in the country, reaching 36% of the population. In the area
of the transmigration settlements, poverty rates rise up to 60‐70%. Poverty is
not spread evenly and there is a socio‐economic dimension to poverty and
illegal logging. This disparity of poverty levels among communities creates an
ethnic dimension to the division between those who profit from unsustainable
use of resources and those who are then left to deal with the resulting
environmental consequences.

In order to stop further
deforestation and to provide alternative sustainable livelihoods to communities
living in ex‐PLG area, the Masterplan calls for the revitalization of
agriculture and improvement of socioeconomic conditions. Many farmers and
inhabitants already have diversified livelihood strategies, for example by
planting coconut, harvesting rubber or keeping livestock appropriate to the
area likewater‐buffaloes. However, access to education and capacity building
still remains a problem. The establishment of community learning centres will
enhance the livelihoods of local people and contribute to communities’ longer
term resilience to climate change, by facilitating and hosting pilot
initiatives that promote sustainable development and which encourage a more
efficient use of natural resources. The aim of the action is to promote the
exchange of information and increase the local communities’ resilience to
climate change impact.

UNESCO will provide capacity
building on sustainable practices that will reduce the incidence of extractive
and unsustainable agricultural practices, while at the same time improving the
local stakeholders livelihoods, with a long term vision. UNESCO has been
conceived with UNOPS and will be closely linked to the proposed UNOPS‐built
community learning centre, as a physical platform to build the capacities of
local communities, as well as to share scientific and traditional knowledge
about ecosystem restoration, sustainable agroforestry and climate change.
UNESCO will define together with the community, and combine local/traditional
knowledge with scientific knowledge, provided by national and international
experts to build the capacities of the local stakeholders. Proposed activities
include intergenerational exchange on traditional conservation and farming
practices, exhibitions on sustainable livelihoods and renewable energy sources
as well as workshops concerned with climate change adaptation and mitigation
and REDD+, ecosystem restoration methodologies, and exchange of information
with other relevant partners (potentially including Green Schools already
active in the province).

The main objectives are:

§Forest composition study in the peat land
forest, covering assessing the potential of replicating the natural forest
succession process as the platform to develop a community and scientific-based
ecological restoration methodology as well as training curricula and module for
the local context

§Community training and community garden to
transfer knowledge on how to restore degraded ecosystem to the local community
using scientific and community based ecological restoration methodology

§Training on climate-proofing the agricultural
sector on community level to generate alternative income. This training will be
designed by using the baseline assessment result provided by UNESCO.

Outputs expected of the
Contractor:

§Comprehensive report on forest composition study
and propose as scientific and community based ecological restoration
methodology in peat land forest in Ex-Mega Rice Project

§Training curricula and modules on knowledge on
how to restore degraded ecosystem to the local community using scientific and
community based ecological restoration methodology

§Training curricula and modules on
climate-proofing agricultural sector on community level to generate alternative
income, which incorporates the result of baseline assessment.